Revisiting each of the Wild's eight straight first-round playoff exits

In honor of the Wild making new history, and Minnesota's ever-continuing title drought, let's revisit each of the Wild's eight first-round exits in the last 10 years: 

2015-16: Dallas Stars 4, Wild 2

The Wild were blown out in Game 1, the Stars' Antoine Roussel scored his first career playoff goal off the back of Devan Dubnyk's head in a narrow Game 2 loss and the Wild fell behind 3-1 in the series. Mikko Koivu gave Wild fans some brief hope of a comeback with his heroics in Game 5, in which he scored the tying goal with 3:09 left in the third before scoring an overtime winner to stave off elimination. But Minnesota fell into a four-goal deficit in Game 6 and its four-goal third-period rally fell just short.

2016-17: St. Louis Blues 4, Wild 1 

The Wild outshot the Blues 182-134 in the series, including by a 52-26 margin in Game 1. But Jake Allen made 51 saves in the opener, Joel Edmunson netted an overtime winner and that was foreshadowing for the series. Allen made 40 saves in Game 3, and the Wild rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period of Game 5, only to get gentlemen's swept as Magnus Paajavi closed the series 9:42 into overtime.

2017-18: Winnipeg Jets 4, Wild 1 

Unlike their five-game exit the year prior, the Wild were thoroughly outplayed in this one. The Jets recorded 88 shots in the first two games, and 81 saves from Dubnyk didn't stop them from falling into a 2-0 series deficit. Game 5 was over quickly as the Jets scored twice in the first 5:42 of the first and led 4-0 by the end of the period. 

2019-20: Vancouver Canucks 3, Wild 1 

The Wild started this best-of-five series strong as Alex Stalock pitched a 28-save shutout and Jared Spurgeon scored twice in a 3-0 Game 1 win. Then it was three straight losses, Game 4 being a heartbreaker. The Wild led 4-3 in the third period, but Bo Horvat found the equalizer. Then it took Chris Tanev all of 11 seconds to find the back of the net in overtime in front of an empty crowd amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  

2020-21: Vegas Golden Knights 4, Wild 3 

It felt like the Wild might do it here. Cam Talbot had a 42-save shutout in Game 1, which didn't see a goal until Joel Eriksson Ek scored 4:20 into overtime. While they lost the next three — Marc-Andre Fleury had 34 saves in Game 2 and a 35-save shutout in Game 4 — the Wild staved off elimination twice behind Talbot's 38-save Game 5 and 23-save shutout in Game 6. Game 7 wasn't even close. The Wild were outshot 34-20, and Mattias Janmark had a hat trick for the Knights in a 6-2 Wild loss. 

2021-22: Blues 4, Wild 2 

More blues against the Blues. David Perron and Kirill Kaprizov traded hat tricks in Games 1 and 2, and the teams split the first four games. Kaprizov scored twice in Game 5, but his performance was topped by Vladimir Tarasenko's third-period hat trick. Game 6 wasn't competitive as Minnesota trailed 4-0 entering the third period. 

2022-23: Stars 4, Wild 2 

It started with a double-overtime classic. Game 1 was a goalie battle between Filip Gustavsson and Lakeville native Jake Oettinger, who made 51 and 45 saves, respectively. Ryan Hartman delivered a Wild victory 12 minutes, 20 seconds into the second overtime. Minnesota took a 2-1 series lead when Mats Zuccarello scored twice in Game 3, but Tyler Seguin scored twice on the power play for the Stars in Game 4 to kick off three straight Wild losses. The Wild were outscored 8-1 in Games 5 and 6. 

2024-25: Golden Knights 4, Wild 2

Well ... this one is fresh in the memory. After stealing a game in Vegas and taking a 2-1 series lead, it was two straight overtime heartbreakers and an eventual loss on home ice as the first-round postseason exits extended to eight consecutive. Just brutal ...